


Biostuck

by orphan_account



Category: BioShock, Homestuck
Genre: Crossover, Image Heavy, Mixed Media, Multi, Not Happy Either, Not Shippy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-01
Updated: 2013-06-01
Packaged: 2017-12-04 00:44:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/704514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You were invited to Skaia, an undersea paradise - months after your friends.  You don't understand why you were asked to come after all, now, after all this time?  Why this?</p>
<p>Why you?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

 

Well, this fellow looks like he's having a rough time of it! What do you suppose his name is?  
  
==> Enter Name  
  
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  
  
J O H N E G B E R T  
  
* name accepted *  
  
You are now John Egbert. What will you do?  
  
==> John: Swim for safety   
  
First things first, you've got to make sure you stay alive! You've been living for a little over twenty years now, and you'd like to keep living, thank you very much.  
  
Plus you were headed on a very important trip to a top secret location, and you're pretty sure it's important you get there. I mean, Skaia doesn't just invite anyone to their secret base that you just found out about two days ago when they contacted you with an email and a one way plane ticket across the Atlantic. Well, you assume not.  
  
But like you just said-- erm, thought-- like you just thought, you'd only just heard of them, but apparently they're the same people who've employed the rest of your friends in the last year or so. They were hired ones at a time, and then dropped off the face of the earth (so to speak.) First Dirk, then Jade, then Dave and Rose and Jake and Jane and, Roxy.  
  
And finally, you.  
  
You wonder if you'll ever make it there at all.  
  
==> Look Up   
  
Oh! Well would you look at that! There seems to be an island of sorts, within a decent swim. Never mind your clothes or the wreckage of the small plane, even though you wish you could help you know, somehow, that you can't.  
  
You've never considered yourself a selfish person, but... There's no one left for you to save here. Best move on.  
  
==> Swim to shore  
  
You pull yourself up onto the island, which seems a little bit like a lighthouse or something. - shaped like a huge sphere, it sits on the rocks like it's ready to roll off. Suspicious, a little, but you can just make out a door to the inside. Better take shelter and try to dry off, right?  
  
It's cold out here, and the weight of the water in your clothes makes you feel heavy. You peel off your sportcoat as you enter, cautiously.  
  
What is this place?  
  
==> Investigate building   
  
There's not much to it, just a dark tall structure with some giant spherical shape in the middle like a old elevator or a diver's helmet--  
  
But, oh? There's a note attached to the metal bubble. You step to the side so the weak light of the doorway can illuminate it, and with a flash of lighting you can just make out words through the crack in your glasses.  
  
JOHN EGBERT  
  
IF YOU ARE READING THIS, WE ASSUME THAT YOUR PLANE HAS LANDED SAFELY. PLEASE DESCEND IN THE BATHOSPHERE IMMEDIATELY UPON READING THIS.  
  
THANK YOU AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO USING YOUR SERVICES  
  
You are no more enlightened about your situation than you were a minute ago, but at least your next action is clear. You're cold and tired and you've got nothing but the clothes on your back, so what have you got to lose?  
  
==> Decend  
  



	2. The Descent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to Kyntello (http://kyntello.tumblr.com) for his work as Dave's VA and other assorted assistance with the project.

==> John: Enter bathosphere 

As soon as you step through the door, lights in the circular cabin flicker on halfheartedly, as though the shake of your footsteps shook the filaments in the bare bulb just enough to connect again. The interior looks a little the worse for wear - someone spilled coffee or something on the seat, but you're so exhausted you don't really care and sit down anyway. Your knees are weak, arms are heavy; but that's probably just from your long swim.

Oh, and the fact that you survived a place hijacking. That, too.

==> Close door and begin quiet reflection on previous events

The best place to start is generally at the begining, but you don't start with the first birthday you remember, some twenty odd years ago. Instead, you start with how you found yourself in the ocean in the dead of night after one of the rudest possible awakenings.

But first, you tug the door closed and spin the little wheel thing closed - then, according to the simple picture directions (the words underneath have been scratched out long ago) you pull a lever and begin your descent. The jolt knocks the filaments in the bulb back out of place, and you find your seat in total darkness.

Darkness, also, was what greeted you perhaps a couple hours ago - darkness, and screaming. You woke up to have the terrible feeling of everything lurching underneath you. People were dashing around from one place to the other, and there was the sound of fighting... maybe?

It all happened so fast, you can't remember much at all. But what you do remember makes you feel sick, and ashamed.

You couldn't save anyone. You could hardly even save yourself.

Why, then, are you headed down to the ocean? Why does Skaia seem to think you were special?

It's been a long day, and you can't wait to find the nearest bed and take a nice, long nap on it.

==> Black out

You cannot fall asleep just yet! You may have ditched your suit jacket for wetness reasons, but you still want to be a professional!

Besides, you're just starting to be able to make out lights up ahead. They're faint, and blurry through the tiny glass porthole on the door, but they're lights. You wonder if you've come down deep enough to find freaky sea monsters yet. 

Jade always believed in sea monsters. With the money she was going to make down here, she was going to travel to Scotland and camp out at Loch Ness until she saw the Loch Ness Monster. Maybe even catch it. Idly, you wonder how she's doing - how everyone is doing. Do they know you're coming? Have they missed you?

You lean forward a little more in your chair, eyes straining to see things in the darkness. You start to imagine things, just for the fun of it. A full city under the sea, populated by mermaids who pour ocean wine into shell cups and sing like sirens. Glowing undersea dragons, proud and elegant as horses, ready to be tamed and riden for miles underwater. Monsters with eyes that could see in the dark and long claws and horns and--

Something scrapes along the side of the cabin, and you jump a bit but clamp back the yelp that almost escaped. Imagination time is over. It's not fun anymore.

But the lights are a bit clearer now, and with all the slow jolting roll typical of riding on a train, you begin your decent into a tiny city.

Well, city's a bit of a loose term. It looks like someone took a neatly sliced chunk of a bustling metropolis; there's a huge building the size of a football arena, sandwiched between a few other sharp, professional looking structures. Your heart beats a little faster. Okay, maybe it just doesn't slow down from your scare a few seconds ago. No shame in that.

Which is also why you jump about three inches into the air when static bursts from a [radio](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=potxIW1Ov6U) somewhere in the cabin.

mo

ther

fuck

egbert we were begining to think you wouldn't show up at all

i bet you took so long just to fuck with me for making this goddamn cake for you

you wanna see my hopes dreams and affections all go moldy

well

just for that im eatin the last bit of gushers

It's Dave. You smile as your little metal hampster ball-esque thing rolls closer to the city. You wonder if he'll believe you when you tell him all that's happened today. (Though his terms confuse you a bit - what the heck is a gushers?)

but hey

do yourself a favor and grab this radio will you

theres a bit of a welcoming party down there and theyve got forks and knives just waitin for you

but be cool bro i got your back

navi aint got nothing on me im a game breakin hack thatll light up every weak spot like a wasp stuck in a bug zapper

You're... not sure what he meant by the last bit, but you're almost here now. Hopefully once you're finished with this welcoming party you can go to sleep - and skip the cake. You're still not a--

you hear that you fuckers

my best friends coming

and hes gonna chicken fry your asses

The radio clicks dead just as the lights flicker back on - you jolted to a stop, but the sudden pit in the bottom of your stomach made you miss it until just now. You snatch the radio up and snap it clumsily to your belt, hands shaking and all your exhaustion gone with a jolt of terror. 

This might be a long night.

Your hand lingers on the wheel to the door of the bathosphere, and the light inside gives one last tremor before dying for good. But you're glad, because you just saw something move outside and your instincts say it was not human.

The bathosphere has stationed itself inside what looks like it might have been a huge lobby or ballroom; but by now, it's a shadowy blur of broken shapes and blue chunks of ocean as seen through glass. It's surreal, being here, like being locked in the zoo after dark.

You don't want to think about what kind of animals might be in this zoo.

==> Enter

But your friends are down here, too, and so for their sake you start to wheel open the door and--

Nope, there is certainly something alive down here that should not be. A sillouette flits in front of one of the blocks of blue - it... shuffles, it slinks, and it's something predatory and headed towards you.

You unlock the door with a few more spins of your hands, but hold it closed and wait. Your heart is pounding, and you really hope this is all just a joke of Dave's, and in a couple second he's going to buzz back onto the radio and explain all those stupid jokes--

You jolt when the thing pounces, and you make out a mouth full of sharp white teeth as it chews on the glass, but that's exactly what you wanted. Throwing yourself forward, you charge out of the bathosphere, still clinging tightly to the door. Oddly enough, that's what saves you from slipping on the wet tiled floor, but you manage to find enough traction to run in a tight circle and slam the beast between the door and the shell of the bathosphere.

It gives a little squealing crunch, something between the sound of stepping on a wasp and the scream of a mouse stuck in a trap, and claws reach over the edge of the door and brush the edges of your hair. You back up a touch and charge forward again, feet finding a brace against some kind of metal upright and you keep slamming this, this thing until you're exhausted and water is starting to blur your vision.

Sinking to your knees, you gasp for air. At that precise moment, the unfaithful light in the bathosphere flickers back on again and you see what it is that you've killed.

It has the stature of a child, and you freeze for a moment in horror - you've just killed a child, it was a prank all along - but then you see the unnatural shine of its skin, how it buckles and cracks, beetlelike, and how it bleeds something bright blue and almost glowing.

As you visually sweep the rest of the surrounding area, something catches your eye - not movement, thank god, but a hammer.

It's crude and dirty, but you pick it up and it feels perfectly balanced in your hand. You swing it a couple times, back and forth, experimenting with the motions, then tuck it in a belt loop.

Your [radio](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne61hYUxnm4) flares to life then, too.

not much of a party I guess

That's the understatement of the century, and you wish this was a two-way radio so you could tell him so.  


imps

they used to work for us; theyre the worker ants of the colony gone nuts so just crush them under your shoe like the bugs they are

im not gonna get philosophical on you with them

just know that they're not human

not anymore

anyways youre gonna need a bit more than that hammer to keep alive down here so head on over to derse

cant miss it purple as roses favorite prose and just as goth lookin

once youre there youre gonna wanna hit up the sphinx - ive left you a little something on the third floor

It should still be there, since I actually took the time to nail it down but...

You wish you had something to write all this down with, and you're busy patting yourself down for paper and pencil when you remember that you're still kind of wet - almost too distracted to catch Dave's continued speech

be careful in there okay?

thats roxys haunt and i mean that in the supernatural sense

anyways thats all I got for now

go get em mr ectobiologist

ill keep in touch.

Well, it's no joke at least. Dave was never half as good of an actor as he thought he was - and if he was acting scared, he wouldn't be trying to hide it so badly. You pull yourself together and take stock of your surroundings.

The bathosphere has come to rest in a large lobby area that's seen better days. The light from the other buildings outside is blue and distorted, but assisted by the steady golden glow from inside your transport, you're able to make out details a bit better. There was a statue, maybe a fountain in the middle of the room - but by now it's just a heap of stone spouting water from various angles. The floor is a dark blueish mosaic tile in spiraling patterns leading to a lighter shade in the center, and you hold on to the battered iron handrail as you head down the brief flight of stairs to the main floor.

The lobby seems to be massive, but as you head towards the blue glass like a moth towards a flame you notice long passageways leading in opposite directions on your right and left. One side is colored with tarnished gold on stately (if stained) pillars, while the other is (or was) a rich plum color with somewhat Gothic arcitecture.

Something crunches under you feet, and you step back and off an empty potato chip bag. This also draws your line of sight to words in the tile.

PROSBIT reads one word, or something like PROSBIT at least, with an arrow to your right. DERSP reads the other, pointing to the left. A crude but effective map.

But before you go, you walk up to the glass and lay the palm of your hand against it. It's icy and slightly damp, and you jerk your hand away with a frown. But outside in the flickering, cold ocean you can see a name on the massive while building, a few blocks away.

SKAIALABS 

it says, spelled out in blue glass near where the round side starts to curve up and in for the dome-like roof. Light seeps from it steadily, sickly, like blood draining from a carcass.

==> Keep moving

You're almost happy to do so, and with decisive (if still a little unsteady) movements you head towards Dersp. Or was it Derse?

Whatever. It's where you headed, and you can only assume by now that this isn't going to be a nice, paid vacation in a modern Atlantis. But more concerning than that is the question that's been buzzing in the back of your mind since Dave's voice first came over the radio;

What happened to everyone else?

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry it's taken so long, but I imagine it's going to continue to take forever to get chapters up. Check out how you can contribute (if you wish) and overall track the progress of this endeavor on the official tumblr!
> 
> http://thebiostuckproject.tumblr.com/
> 
> Thanks for all your support - next chapter will premier the first of our VAs and (should) be up within a month!


End file.
